Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are having mega-batches of kittens today. (Senator Arlen Specter changed party affiliation.)  I think it's rather funny, actually.  One person actually commented that we'd end up with a one-party system.  First, I don't recall the right making those comments when they declared that they had a "permanent majority" in 2004.  Second, .... no freakin' way.  If magically everybody was a Democratic (or Republican, take your pick), how long do you think it would be before we split into two factions?  I'd give it 20 minutes, max.  The pendulum swings.  Right now the momentum is with the left but rest assured that some day it will swing back to the right.  Stop having kittens already!!!

The left has high hopes for President Obama; the extreme right wants to find everything wrong.  I think 100 days is nowhere near enough time to "pass judgement on a president.  I'm waiting to see but I DO have high hopes.

The torture thing is heating up.  Sure is a mess.

The photo op in New York with the low-flying plane was stupid stupid stupid.

The art of compromise

There is a very interesting maillist thread ongoing on one of my lists about bullets flying in the night.  The amusing thing is this .... the originator of the post commented about the green casings.  Another poster said that if they're green, they are the non-lead casings.  Is it me, or is there something very bizarre about "safer bullets"?

About gay marriage:  suppose we called everything outside of church ceremonies "civil unions".  Only churches would perform "marriages".  Would this solve the controversy?  (Full disclosure - the fact that same-sex marriages are not allowed is ridiculous!!!!!)

The pro-gun and pro-choice people make too much (invalid) use of the slippery-slope argument (if this, then that).  It's a bunch of BS.  Suppose the pro-choicers give up late-term abortions and the pro-gunners give up assault weapons.  Is that a compromise we can live with?

I spent 5 minutes of the ride home listening to Sean Hannity. (It's really all I can take of him anymore; he DID drink the Kool-Aid). Hannity thinks we should pull out of the U.N. and he thinks torture ("enhanced interrogation techniques") works.

RE: the United Nations: if we don't like something, should we take our ball & go home? I thought we were taught better as youngsters. We may not like it but my opinion is that we must remain as part of the world.

RE: torture: did we? should we have? I think there's an easy answer to the question of whether or not something is torture: would we accept it if done to our troops?

I've noticed that, the last two times Democrats occupied the White House, the political right acted as if the world was about to end and the country was about to succumb to ..... well, to what, I have no idea, but definitely to something. I worried more about the idea of freedom over the past 8 years - I was not sure we would still have Freedom in this country by the closing days of Bush 43.

I guess that's what makes people great! There are different ways of looking at the world. I personally prefer the liberal way of looking at the world but definitely "get" that the conservatives will have their time in the White House as well. We've made it this long - I wish folks wouldn't stress so much!!

(I love blogs - I can express my opinion all I want!!)

Dick Cheney is an ass.

Eugene Robinson: Mega-congrats on your Pulitzer Prize!!!!!!

Really Dumb Things

- The commercial for Astepro says that if you're allergic to Astepro you shouldn't take it.  Have we really become that stupid?

- Why do they put "Do not eat" on packets of silica beads?  Again, have we become that stupid?

- Charging teenagers for "sexting" then branding them "sexual offenders" for the rest of their lives is about the dumbest thing I've heard this year.  

- Speaking of teenagers, I think that if a prosecutor chooses to charge a teen as an adult, that prosecutor should also have to buy that teenager a case of beer.

- I still don't understand how 2 gay people being married is going to upset anyone else's marriage.  Isn't this similar to the argument that was used to prevent interracial marriage?   

- There's a stalker on Craiglist - why is it that someone has to come along and ruin something that works well for most of us.  Wouldn't it be fun if we could still have public stocks so we could all go shoot spitballs at these kinds of people?  (Before we lock them up for good, of course)

Car chase in California!

Please please please!!!  Why is this "news"?  MSNBC is following some obscure car chase.  Why do I care?  

I think 24-hour news has destroyed the news industry.  Our gatekeepers - those tasked with presenting us the news each day - have fallen to lows I would never have dreamed.  There's nothing newsworthy about this car chase.  There's nothing honorable about hundreds of reporters camping out on the lawn in front of the home of the captain currently being held hostage by pirates off Somalia (doesn't that truly bring to mind a pictures of vultures hovering???) There's nothing newsworthy about tagging some (probably not stable) woman as "Octomom" (I personally have no desire to see any limits put on child-bearing options, do you??)

Not tort reform, but SOMETHING!!!

There’s something very sick about a society that has such a large population of members who think the way to prosperity is through lawsuits. Commercials that ask you "if you’ve been in an accident, call x (fill in the blank) to get the name of a lawyer that will refer you to a doctor” are so far past ethical that it should be a crime. What lawyer of any integrity at all – what doctor of any integrity at all – would be involved in these schemes? Don’t lawyers and doctors take vows? I guess that’s just a word now – “vow”. It means just about as much as “accident” (which may as well be banned from the dictionary, considering the lawsuits flying around these days!). How shall we repair our sick society? Can we swing the pendulum back to ethical and honorable?